Christianity As Mystical Fact

THE MYSTIC SOUGHT within himself for forces, for beings which remain
unknown to man so long as he is limited by the ordinary conception of
life. The mystic formulates the great question about his own spiritual
forces, which go beyond lower nature, and their laws. With his
ordinary materialistic, logical conception of life, man creates gods
for himself, or if he gains insight into this creation he disowns
them. The mystic perceives that he creates gods; he perceives why he creates them; he can, so to speak, see beyond the natural laws of the
creation of gods. It is the same with him as it would be with a plant
if it suddenly acquired knowledge and learned to know the laws
governing its own growth and development. The plant develops in
innocent unconsciousness. If it knew its own laws it would have to
acquire an entirely new relationship to itself. The plant which has
acquired knowledge would have before it as an ideal what the poet
experiences when he sings about it, what the botanist thinks when he
investigates its laws.  The same is true of the mystic with respect to
his laws and the forces working within him. As one who knows, he must
create beyond himself a divine element. This was the attitude of the
initiates toward what the people had created beyond nature. This was
their attitude toward the popular world of gods and myths. They wished
to perceive the laws of this world of gods and myths. Where the people
had a divinity, a myth, there they sought a higher truth.  Let us
consider an example: The Athenians were compelled by the Cretan King
Minos to deliver to him seven boys and seven girls every eight years.
These were thrown as food to the Minotaur, a fearful monster. When for
the third time the sad consignment was to leave for Crete, the king's
son, Theseus, traveled with them. When he arrived in Crete, King
Minos' own daughter, Ariadne, took his part. The Minotaur lived in a
labyrinth, a maze from which, once one had wandered into it, he could
not find his way out again. Theseus wished to free his homeland from
the disgraceful tribute. He had to enter the labyrinth, into which the
monster's prey was usually thrown. He wished to slay the Minotaur. He
undertook this task; he overcame the fearful foe and again reached
freedom with the aid of a ball Of thread which Ariadne had given him.
 The mystic had to recognize how the creative spirit of man comes to
form such a tale. As the botanist contemplates the growth of a plant
to discover its laws, so the mystic wished to contemplate the creating
spirit. He sought truth, wisdom, where the people had set up a myth.
Sallustius discloses the attitude of a mystic-sage toward such a myth:
The universe itself can be called a myth, since bodies and material
objects are apparent in it, while souls and minds are concealed.
Furthermore, to wish to teach all men the truth about the gods causes
the foolish to despise, because they cannot learn, and the good to be
slothful, whereas to conceal the truth by myths prevents the former
from despising philosophy and compels the latter to study it.
(see Note 54)

The mystic was conscious that by seeking the truth contained in a
myth, he was adding something to what was present in the consciousness
of the people. It was clear to him that he was placing himself above
this consciousness of the people just as a botanist places himself
above the growing plant. He said something quite different from what
was present in the mythological consciousness, but he looked upon what
he said as a deeper truth which was symbolically expressed in the
myth. Man confronts the material world as if it were a monstrous
enemy. To it he sacrifices the fruits of his personality. It devours
them. It does so until the conqueror (Theseus) awakens in man. His
cognition spins for him the thread by which he finds his way when he
enters the maze of the material world to slay his foe. The mystery of
human cognition itself is expressed in this conquering of the material
world. The mystic knows this mystery. It indicates a force in the
human personality. Ordinary consciousness is unaware of this force.
But the latter works within it nevertheless. It engenders the myth
which has the same structure as the mystical truth. This truth is
symbolized in the myth.  What then are myths? They are a creation of
the spirit, of the unconsciously creative soul. The soul is governed
by entirely definite laws. It must work in a definite direction in
order to create beyond itself. On the mythological level it does this
in pictures, but these pictures are built up according to the laws of
the soul. We could also say that when the soul progresses beyond the
plane of mythological consciousness to the deeper truths, these bear
the same stamp as the myths did before, because one and the same force
is active in their creation. The Neoplatonic philosopher, Plotinus
(204269 A. D.), referring to the Egyptian priest-sages, speaks thus
about this relationship between the way of thinking common to
pictorial myths and higher cognition:

The wise of Egypt  whether in precise knowledge or by a prompting of
nature  indicated the truth where, in their effort toward
philosophical statement, they left aside the writing, forms that take
in the details of words and sentences  those characters that represent
sounds and convey the propositions of reasoning  and drew pictures
instead, engraving in the temple-inscriptions a separate image for
every separate item: thus they exhibited the thought-content in which
the Supreme goes forth. For each manifestation of knowledge and wisdom
is a distinct image, an object in itself, an immediate unity, not an
aggregate of discursive argument and detailed discussion. Later from
this wisdom in unity there appears, in another form of existence, an
image, already less compact, which announces the original in an
outward stage and seeks the causes by which things are such that the
wonder arises how a created world can be so excellent.
(see Note 55)

Whoever wishes to become acquainted with the relationship between
mysticism and mythological tales, must see how mythology is dealt with
by the world conception of those whose wisdom accords with the method
of thinking of the Mysteries. Such accord exists to the fullest extent
in Plato. His interpretation of myths and his use of them in his
exposition, may be taken as a standard.
(see Note in Chapter 4)
In the Phaedrus, a dialogue about the soul, the myth of Boreas is introduced.
This divine being, which was seen in the rushing wind, once glimpsed
the beautiful Orithea, daughter of the Greek King Erechtheus, as she
was picking flowers with her playmates. He was seized with a passion
for her, abducted her and took her to his cave. In this dialogue Plato
causes Socrates to reject a purely rational explanation of this myth.
According to such an explanation an external, natural fact is supposed
to be related symbolically in the tale. A gale is supposed to have
seized the king's daughter and flung her down from the cliff. Such
explanations, says Socrates, are very subtle and may be very
entertaining ... But when one has once begun to give a rational
explanation to one of these mythological figures, one must go on and
look at all the others with the same scepticism and reduce them one
after another to the rules of probability ... This sort of explanation
would be the business of a life. If anyone disbelieves in these
mythological figures, and, with a rustic kind of wisdom, undertakes to
explain each in accordance with probability, he will need a great deal
of leisure. But I have no leisure for such inquiries ... So I dismiss
these matters and, accepting the customary belief about them as I was
saying just now, I investigate not these things, but myself, to know
whether I am a monster of a more complicated structure and more savage
than Typhon, or a gentler and simpler creature, whose nature partakes
of divinity.
(see Note 56)
From this we see that a rationalistic, intellectual
interpretation of myths was unacceptable to Plato. This must be
considered together with the manner in which he himself makes use of
myths to express his meaning through them. Where he speaks of the life
of the soul, where he leaves the paths of the transitory and seeks out
the eternal in the soul, where, therefore, the ideas supported by
material perception and intellectual thought are no longer present,
there Plato makes use of the myth. The Phaedrus speaks of the eternal
in the soul. Here the soul is represented as a team of two many-winged
horses with a charioteer. One of the horses is patient and wise, the
other stubborn and wild. When the team encounters an obstruction in
its path, the stubborn horse makes use of this to hinder the
intentions of the good one and thwart the charioteer. When the team
arrives at the point where it should follow the gods over the heavens,
the bad horse brings it into a state of confusion. Whether the bad
horse is overcome by the good and the team is able to enter the
supersensible realm beyond the obstruction, depends on the power of
the bad horse. So it happens that the soul is never able to raise
itself unhindered to the realm of the divine. Some souls raise
themselves to this vision of eternity in a greater degree than others.
The soul which has seen the beyond remains safe until the next
traverse; the soul which  because of the wild horse  has seen nothing,
must make the attempt on a new traverse. By these traverses are meant
the various incarnations of the soul. One traverse denotes the life of
the soul in one personality. The wild horse represents the lower
nature, the wise horse the higher nature, and the charioteer the soul
longing for its apotheosis. Plato makes use of the myth to show the
path of the eternal soul through various stages. Similarly, in other
writings of Plato, myth or symbolical narrative is used to show the
inner being of man, the part not perceptible to the senses.

Here Plato is in full accord with the manner of expression by myth and
parable used by others. In ancient Indian literature we find a parable
attributed to Buddha. A man much attached to life, who on no account
wishes to die, who seeks for sensual pleasure, is pursued by four
serpents. He hears a voice which commands him to feed and bathe the
four serpents from time to time. The man runs away for fear of the
evil serpents. Again he hears a voice. This draws his attention to
five murderers who are coming after him. Again the man runs away. A
voice draws his attention to a sixth murderer who wishes to strike off
his head with a drawn sword. Again the man flees. He comes to a
deserted village. He hears a voice which tells him that thieves will
shortly plunder the village. As he continues to flee he comes to a
great expanse of water. He does not feel safe on this shore; he makes
a basket for himself out of straw, sticks and leaves; in this he
reaches the further shore. Now he is safe; he is a Brahmin. The sense
of this parable is that man must pass through the most varied
conditions to attain to the divine. In the four serpents may be seen
the four elements, fire, water, earth and air. In the five murderers
may be seen the five senses. The deserted village is the soul which
has fled from the impressions of the senses, but is not yet safe when
alone with itself. If the soul inwardly takes hold of its lower nature
only, it must perish. Man must fashion a boat for himself which will
carry him over the waters of the transitory from one shore, material
nature, to the other, the eternal and divine.

Let us consider the Egyptian mystery of Osiris in this light.
Gradually Osiris had become one of the most important Egyptian
divinities. His representation supplanted other representations of
gods in certain parts of the country. A significant series of myths
formed itself around the figures of Osiris and his consort Isis.
Osiris was the son of the sun god; Typhon-Set was his brother and Isis
his sister. Osiris married his sister. With her he reigned over Egypt.
The evil brother, Typhon, plotted the destruction of Osiris. He caused
a casket to be made of the exact size of Osiris. At a banquet the
casket was offered as a gift to anyone who exactly fitted into it. No
one succeeded in this but Osiris. He laid himself in it. Then Typhon
and his accomplices hurled themselves upon Osiris, closed the casket
and threw it into the river. When Isis received the dreadful news she
was desperate and wandered everywhere searching for the corpse of her
husband. When she had found him, Typhon again gained power over him.
He tore him into fourteen pieces, which were scattered far apart in
different districts. Various tombs of Osiris were shown in Egypt. Here
and there in many places pieces of the god were said to have been laid
to rest. Osiris himself ascended from the nether world and conquered
Typhon; a ray from Osiris then fell upon Isis, who bore him the son
Harpokrates or Horus.

Now let us compare this myth with the way the world was understood by
the Greek philosopher Empedocles (490430 B. C.). He assumes that the
single archetypal being was torn into the four elements, fire, water,
earth and air  into the multiplicity of existence. He sets in
opposition to each other two powers which affect growth and decay
within the world of existence: love and strife. Empedocles says of the
elements:

There are these alone; but, running through one another,
They become men and the tribes of beasts.
At one time all are brought together into one order by Love;
At another, each is carried in different directions by the repulsion
of Strife.
(see Note 57)

Then from Empedocles' standpoint what are the things of the world?
They are the elements, variously mixed. They could come into existence
only through the tearing apart of the archetypal One into the four
entities. This archetypal One is diffused into the elements of the
world. All the things that meet us partake of the diffused divinity,
but this divinity is hidden within them. It first had to die, so that
the things could come into existence. And what are these things? They
are mixtures of portions of the god, influenced in their structure by
love and hate. Empedocles says this distinctly:

This is manifest in the mass of mortal limbs.
At one time all the limbs that are the body's portion
Are brought together by Love in blooming life's high season;
At another, severed by cruel Strife,
They wander each alone by the breakers of life's sea.
It is the same with plants, with fish that live in waters,
With beasts living on hills, with seabirds sailing on wings.
(see Note 58)

Empedocles must take the view that the sage rediscovers the divine
archetypal unity which is spellbound in the world, interwoven with
love and hate. But if man is to find the divine he himself must become
divine, for Empedocles takes his stand on the basis that only equals
can recognize each other. His conviction of the laws of cognition is
expressed in Goethe's saying, If the eye were not of the nature of
the sun how could we see the light? If God's own power did not live
within us how could we strive for the divine?

In the myth of Osiris the mystic is able to find these thoughts about
the world and man, which transcend the experience of the senses. The
divine creative force is diffused in the world. It appears as the four
elements. The god (Osiris) has been slain. Man, with his cognition,
which is of a divine nature, is to wake him again; he is to find him
again as Horus (Son of God, Logos, Wisdom) in the antithesis of Strife
(Typhon) and Love (Isis). Empedocles expresses his basic conviction in
Greek form with ideas reminiscent of the myths. Aphrodite is Love;
Neikos, Strife. They bind and release the elements.

Such an exposition of the content of a myth must not be confused with
a merely symbolical or allegorical interpretation. This is not
intended here. The pictures comprising the content of a myth are not
invented symbols for abstract truths, but real soul experiences of the
initiate. He experiences the pictures with spiritual organs of
perception as a normal man experiences the representations of
material things with his eyes and ears. Just as the representation is
of little value by itself if it is not activated by perception of the
external object, so the mythological picture is of little value
without its activation through real occurrences in the spiritual
world. It is only with respect to the material world that man at first
stands outside the activating things; on the other hand, he can
experience the mythological pictures only when he stands within the
corresponding spiritual events. To be able to stand within the latter,
in the opinion of the ancient mystics, he must have passed through
initiation. There the spiritual events which he sees are illustrated
as it were, by the mythological pictures. Whoever is unable to take
mythology as such an illustration of true spiritual events, has not
yet advanced to a comprehension of mythology. For the spiritual events
themselves are supersensible, and pictures whose content is
reminiscent of the material world are not in themselves spiritual, but
are merely an illustration of the spiritual. Whoever lives only in
pictures, lives in a dream; he lives in spiritual perception only when
he has reached the point of experiencing the spiritual in the picture,
just as in the material world one experiences the rose through the
representation of the rose. This is also the reason why the pictures
presented by myths cannot have only a single meaning. Because of their
illustrative character the same myths can express various spiritual
facts. It is, therefore, no contradiction when interpreters of myths
apply them now to one spiritual fact and again to a different one.

From this point of view a thread can be found running through the
manifold Greek myths. Let us consider the legend of Hercules. The
twelve labors imposed on Hercules are seen in a higher light when one
reflects that before the last and most difficult one he was initiated
into the Eleusinian Mysteries. At the command of King Eurystheus of
Mycenae he was to fetch Cerberus, the hound of hell, from the nether
world, and take him back there again. To be able to undertake a
journey into the nether world, Hercules had to be an initiate. The
Mysteries led man through the death of the transitory and thus into
the nether world; through initiation they wished to save the eternal
element in him from destruction. As a mystic he could overcome death.
Hercules overcame the dangers of the nether world as a mystic. This
justifies the interpretation of his other deeds as stages of the inner
development of the soul. He overcame the Nemean lion and brought him
to Mycenae. This means that he became master of the purely physical
force in man; he tamed it. Next he slew the nine-headed Hydra. He
overcame it with firebrands, dipping his arrows in its gall so that
they would never miss their mark. This means that he overcame lower
knowledge, the knowledge of the senses, through the fire of the
spirit, and out of what he had gained from this lower knowledge he
drew the strength to see the lower world in the light belonging to the
spiritual eye. Hercules caught the doe of Artemis. The latter is the
goddess of the chase. Hercules hunted down what the free nature of the
human soul can offer. The other labors can be interpreted in a similar
way. We cannot follow them in every detail here; our intention is only
to show how the general sense of the myth itself points to inner
development

A similar interpretation is possible for the voyage of the Argonauts.
Phrixus and his sister Helle, children of a Boeotian king, suffered
greatly at the hands of their stepmother. The gods sent a ram with a
golden fleece to them, which carried them away through the air. As
they crossed the straits between Europe and Asia, Helle was drowned.
Hence the straits are called the Hellespont. Phrixus reached the king
of Colchis on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. He sacrificed the
ram to the gods and presented the fleece to the King Aetes. The latter
had it hung in a grove and guarded by a frightful dragon. The Greek
hero, Jason, together with the other heroes, Hercules, Theseus and
Orpheus, undertook to fetch the fleece from Colchis. Jason was charged
with difficult tasks before he could reach the treasure of Aetes. But
Medea, the daughter of the king, who was versed in magic, helped him.
He tamed two fire-breathing bulls; he ploughed a field and sowed
dragons' teeth, so that armed men grew out of the earth. On the advice
of Medea he threw a stone among the men, whereupon they murdered one
another. By means of a magic potion from Medea, Jason put the dragon
to sleep; then he was able to obtain the fleece. With this he embarked
upon the return journey to Greece. Medea accompanied him as his wife.
The king pursued the fugitives. To delay him, Medea slew her little
brother Absyrtus, scattering his limbs upon the sea. Aetes was delayed
in gathering them up. Hence the couple were able to reach Jason's home
with the fleece.  Here every single fact demands a deeper explanation.
The fleece is something belonging to man, something of infinite value
to him; in ancient times it was separated from him and its recapture
involves the overcoming of terrible powers. So it is with the eternal
in the human soul. It belongs to man. But he finds himself separated
from it. His lower nature separates him from it. Only when he
overcomes this lower nature, puts the latter to sleep, can he regain
it. This is possible when his own consciousness (Medea) comes to his
aid with its magic force. Medea becomes for Jason what Diotima, as the
teacher of love, was for Socrates
(see Note in Chapter 4).
Human wisdom possesses the magic force to reach the divine after overcoming
the transitory. Out of the lower nature can come only a lower human
element, the armed men, which is overcome by the force of the
spiritual element, the advice of Medea. Even when man has found his
eternal element, the Recce, he is not yet safe. He must sacrifice a
part of his consciousness (Absyrtus). This is demanded by the material
world, which we can conceive of only as manifold (torn to pieces). We
could penetrate still more deeply into the description of the
spiritual events lying behind these pictures, but here we intend only
to indicate the principle of myth formation.

Of particular interest in relation to such an interpretation is the
saga of Prometheus. Prometheus and Epimetheus were the sons of the
Titan, Japetos. The Titans were the children of the oldest generation
of the gods, of Uranos (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth). Kronos, the youngest
of the Titans, dethroned his father and seized the rulership of the
world. For this, together with the remaining Titans, he was
overpowered by his son Zeus. And Zeus became supreme among the gods.
In the battle with the Titans, Prometheus stood at the side of Zeus.
On his advice Zeus banished the Titans into the nether world. But the
Titans' attitude of mind continued to live in Prometheus. He was only
half a friend to Zeus. When Zeus wished to destroy men for their
presumption, Prometheus took their part, teaching them the art of
numbers and writing, as well as other things leading to culture,
especially the use of fire. Because of this Zeus was angry with
Prometheus. Hephaestus, the son of Zeus, was commissioned to fashion
the image of a woman of great beauty, which the gods adorned with all
kinds of gifts. This woman was known as Pandora, the all-gifted.
Hermes, the messenger of the gods, brought her to Epimetheus, the
brother of Prometheus. She brought him a casket as a gift from the
gods. Epimetheus accepted the gift, despite the fact that Prometheus
had advised him on no account to accept a gift from the gods. When the
casket was opened, out flew all kinds of human plagues. Hope alone
remained inside, and that only because Pandora quickly closed the lid.
Therefore Hope has remained as the doubtful gift of the gods.  At the
command of Zeus, Prometheus was chained to a rock in the Caucasus
because of his relationship with men. An eagle constantly fed upon his
liver, which continually renewed itself. Prometheus had to pass his
days in tortured solitude until one of the gods voluntarily sacrificed
himself, that is, dedicated himself to death. The tortured one bore
his suffering steadfastly. He had learned that Zeus would be dethroned
by the son of a mortal woman if he did not marry her. Zeus was anxious
to know this secret; he sent the messenger of the gods, Hermes, to
Prometheus to discover something about it. Prometheus denied him any
information.  The legend of Hercules is linked with that of
Prometheus. During his travels Hercules also came to the Caucasus. He
killed the eagle which was consuming the liver of Prometheus. The
centaur, Chiron, who could not die, although suffering from an
incurable wound, sacrificed himself for Prometheus. Then the latter
was reconciled with the gods.

The Titans are the force of will streaming from the original cosmic
spirit (Uranos) in the form of nature (Kronos). Here we must not think
of merely abstract forces of will, but of real beings of will.
Prometheus belongs among the latter. This characterizes his being. But
he is not entirely a Titan. In a certain sense he sides with Zeus, the
spirit who assumed the rulership of the world after the unbridled
nature-force (Kronos) had been tamed. Prometheus, therefore,
represents those worlds which have given man that forward-striving,
which is a force half of nature, half of spirit  the will. On the one
side the will is directed toward good, on the other side toward evil.
Its destiny is formed according to whether it inclines toward the
spiritual or the transitory. This destiny is the destiny of man
himself. Man is chained to the transitory. The eagle gnaws at him. He
must endure it. He can only attain the heights when he seeks his
destiny in solitude. He has a secret. Its content is that the divine
(Zeus) must marry a mortal, human consciousness itself, which is bound
to the physical body, in order to bring forth a son, human wisdom (the
Logos), who will redeem the god. Through this, consciousness becomes
immortal. Man may not betray this secret until a mystic (Hercules)
approaches him and removes the power which continually threatens him
with death. A being, half animal, half human  a centaur  must
sacrifice himself to redeem man. The centaur is man himself, the half
animal, half spiritual man. He must die so that the purely spiritual
man may be redeemed. What Prometheus, the human will, despises, is
taken by Epimetheus, the intellect, shrewdness. But the gifts offered
to Epimetheus are only troubles and plagues. For the intellect clings
to nothingness, to the transitory. And only one thing remains  the
hope that out of the transitory, one day the eternal may be born.

The thread running through the legends of the Argonauts, Hercules and
Prometheus, also holds good for the poem of the Odyssey by Homer. The
use of this method of interpretation in studying the latter work, may
appear forced. But upon a closer examination of everything that has to
be considered, even the most hardened doubter must lose his misgivings
about such an interpretation. Above all, it must surprise us to find
it related of Odysseus also that he descended to the nether world.
Whatever we may think of the author of the Odyssey in other respects,
it is impossible to credit him with causing a mortal being to descend
to the nether world without bringing him into relationship with all
that the journey to the nether world signified in the Greek world
conception. It signified the overcoming of the transitory and the
awakening of the eternal in the soul. That Odysseus achieved this
must, therefore, be admitted. With this his experiences, like those of
Hercules, gain a deeper meaning. They become a description of
something which does not belong to the material world, a description
of the soul's path of development. In addition, the Odyssey is not
related as one would expect of a sequence of external facts. The hero
makes voyages on magic ships. Actual geographical distances are
treated in a most arbitrary way. Material reality is simply
irrelevant. This becomes comprehensible if the actual events are
related only in order to illustrate spiritual development.
Furthermore, the author himself states in his introduction to the
work, that it deals with the search for the soul: Tell me, O Muse, of
the man of many devices, who wandered full many ways after he had
reached the sacred citadel of Troy. Many were the men whose cities he
saw and whose mind he learned, aye, and many the woes he suffered in
his heart upon the sea, seeking to win his own soul and the return of
his comrades.
(see Note 59)

Here we have a man seeking for the soul, the divine element, and his
wanderings in search of this divine element are related.  He comes to
the land of the Cyclops. These are ungainly giants with one eye in
their foreheads. Polyphemus, the most terrible of them, devours
several of his companions. Odysseus saves himself by blinding the
Cyclops. Here we are dealing with the first stage of life's
pilgrimage. Physical power, the lower nature, must be overcome.
Whoever does not deprive it of its strength, whoever does not blind
it, will be devoured by it.  Odysseus then reaches the island of the
witch Circe. She transforms some of his companions into grunting
swine. She also is conquered by him. Circe represents the lower
spiritual force which clings to the transitory. Through abuse of this
force she can thrust humanity only deeper into its animal nature.
 Odysseus must overcome her. Then he can descend into the nether world.
He becomes a mystic. Now he is exposed to the dangers which beset a
mystic on his ascent from the lower to the higher stages of
initiation. He reaches the Sirens who lure passing travelers to their
death with sounds of enchanting sweetness. These are the images
produced by the lower fantasy, the first things to be followed by
anyone who has freed himself from the material world. He has come as
far as free creative activity, but not as far as the initiated spirit.
He chases after illusory images and must free himself from their
power.  Odysseus must traverse the awesome passage between Scylla and
Charybdis. In his early stages the mystic wavers between spirit and
sensuality. He is still unable to grasp the full content of the
spirit, but sensuality has already lost its earlier value. All
Odysseus' companions perish in a shipwreck; he alone saves himself and
finds the nymph Calypso, who receives him in friendship and cares for
him for seven years. At last, at the command of Zeus, she releases him
to return to his home. The mystic has reached a stage at which all who
are striving with him, fail, except Odysseus, who alone is worthy. In
peace this worthy one enjoys gradual initiation for a period defined
by the mystically symbolical number seven.  Before Odysseus reaches
his home, however, he comes to the island of the Phaeacians. Here he
is hospitably received. The king's daughter is interested in him and
King Alcinous himself entertains him and does him honor. Once again
Odysseus encounters the world and its pleasures, and the spirit which
cling to the world (Nausicaä) awakens in him. However, he finds the
way home to the divine. At first nothing good awaits him at home. His
wife, Penelope, is surrounded by numerous suitors. To each she
promises marriage when she has finished a certain piece of weaving.
She avoids keeping her promise by unraveling at night what she has
woven during the day. The suitors must be overcome by Odysseus so that
he may be reunited with his wife in peace. The goddess Athene
transforms him into a beggar so that he will not be recognized at once
upon entering his house. Then he overcomes the suitors.  Odysseus seeks
his own deeper consciousness, the divine forces of the soul. He wishes
to be united with them. Before the mystic finds them he must overcome
everything which lays claim to this consciousness in the form of a
suitor. This crowd of suitors comes from the world of lower reality,
of transitory nature. The logic applicable to this world is a weaving
which continually unravels itself after it has been spun. Wisdom (the
goddess Athene) is the sure guide to the deepest forces of the soul.
She transforms man into a beggar, i.e. she divests him of all that is
derived from the transitory.

The Eleusinian Festivals, celebrated in Greece in honor of Demeter and
Dionysus, appear steeped in Mystery wisdom. A sacred road led from
Athens to Eleusis. It was marked with secret signs which could bring
the soul into a mood of deep reverence. In Eleusis were secret temple
buildings which were served by priestly families. Dignity and the
wisdom with which this dignity was connected, were inherited in these
priest families from generation to generation. (Information concerning
these places of worship may be found in the book, Ergänzungen zu den
letzten Untersuchungen auf der Acropolis in Athen by Karl Bötticher,
Philologus, Suppl. Vol. 3 Section 3.) The wisdom making it possible
for services to be enacted there, was the Greek Mystery wisdom. The
festivals, celebrated twice yearly, displayed the great cosmic drama
of the destiny of the divine in the world and the destiny of the human
soul. The Minor Mysteries were celebrated in February, the Major
Mysteries in September. Initiations were connected with the festivals.
The symbolical presentation of the drama of man and the cosmos formed
the concluding act of the initiations undertaken there. The Eleusinian
temples were erected in honor of the goddess Demeter. She is a
daughter of Kronos. She bore a daughter, Persephone, to Zeus, before
his marriage to Hera. Once while Persephone was playing, she was
kidnaped by Pluto, the god of the nether world. Demeter, lamenting,
hastened to search for her all over the earth. In Eleusis the
daughters of Keleus, a local ruler, found Demeter sitting on a rock.
Taking the form of an old woman she entered the service of Keleus'
family as nurse to the son of the ruler's wife. She wished to endow
this son with immortality. Therefore she hid him every night in the
fire. When the mother once observed this, she wept and lamented.
Henceforth the bestowal of immortality was impossible. Demeter left
the house. Keleus built a temple. Demeter's sorrow for Persephone was
limitless. She caused famine to spread over the earth. To avoid
disaster the gods were obliged to placate her. Pluto was persuaded by
Zeus to allow Persephone to return to the upper world. Before this,
however, the god of the nether world gave her a pomegranate to eat.
Because of this she was compelled to return to the nether world again
and again at regular intervals. From then on she spent one third of
the year in the nether world and two thirds in the upper world.
Demeter was reconciled; she returned to Olympus. But in Eleusis, the
place of her anguish, she founded the service of the festivals to
commemorate her fate for ever.

The meaning of the Demeter-Persephone myth is not difficult to
recognize. It is the soul which alternates between the lower and the
upper world. The eternity of the soul and its eternal transformation
through birth and death, is represented pictorially. The soul is
descended from Demeter, the immortal. But it is carried off by the
transitory and becomes destined to share in the fate of the
transitory. It has eaten the fruit in the nether world; the human soul
is satiated with the transitory and therefore cannot dwell continually
in the divine heights. It must always return to the realm of the
transitory. Demeter represents that being from which human
consciousness has sprung; but this consciousness must be thought of as
having been able to come into existence through the spiritual forces
of the earth. Thus Demeter is the archetypal being of the earth, and
her gift to the earth in the form of the forces in the seeds and the
produce of the fields, only indicates a still deeper aspect of her
being. This being wishes to endow humanity with immortality. Demeter
hides her nursling in the fire at night. But man cannot endure the
pure power of fire (the spirit). Demeter must desist. She can only
found the temple service through which man may participate in the
divine insofar as he is able to do so.

The Eleusinian Festivals were an eloquent acknowledgment of belief in
the eternity of the human soul. This acknowledgment found pictorial
expression in the myth about Persephone. Dionysus was celebrated in
Eleusis, together with Demeter and Persephone. As in Demeter was
worshiped the divine creatrix of the eternal in man, so in Dionysus
was worshiped the divine element, ever changing in the whole world.
The god who had been diffused into the world and had been torn to
pieces in order to be re-born spiritually
(see Note in Chapter 4),
had to be celebrated together with Demeter. (A splendid presentation of the
spirit of the Eleusinian Mysteries is to be found in the book,
Sanctuaires d'Orient by Édouard Schuré. Paris, 1898.)